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In 1972, the Dogon of the Bandiagara cliff in Mali celebrated the funeral of Anaï Dolo, head of the Bongo Masks Society, who died at the age of 122. On this occasion, the large Bongo mask, is erected and for twenty days, family members, elders, men from neighbouring villages purify the village.
"Tourou et Bitti", an eight minute documentary concerning a ritual in Niger, is yet another example of Rouch's excellence in creating documentaries which surpass the conventional documentary format. Just as frightening and fascinating as "Les maîtres fous", this one goes straight into the roots of ancient African cultures, in which music has an hypnotic effect, being at the same time an exorcism and a public show. Both the female and the male dancers are almost deities about to be unleashed... Spectral and humanitarian.
Kalfou is a village in Far North Cameroon. It lies on the front-line of global climate change as the Sahara desert creeps ever southward into once fertile human habitats. Halilou Siddiki, a Fulani elder of Kalfou, introduces us to the problem of chronic water shortage and shows us its effects on everyday life.The whole region is becoming ever more marginal in feeding its people and the animals, central to the economy – and to culture. The permanent drought situation is pushing some people to burn the bush in search of small animals and to make wood gathering and selling easier. Also climate change is forcing elephant herds to invade and destroy croplands. These secondary effects make the water problem worse. But the wet season finally arrives in Kalfou and along with the rain we see the blooming of the joy of life and abundant harvests. But Halilou worries that the rain period gets shorter each year; that it will no longer sustain his people in their homeland.
